89 - A Working Wage

Today’s ‘All About It’ festival talk features a presentation by Elgin Nutwood of his  acclaimed biography of Asaph Hall. ’When in 1877, Hall discovered the Martian moon, Phobos, he was said to have explained that it was a mere diversion from his favored activity of experimentally determining the value of Pi using fine steel wire. It was in fact only under pressure from his wife that he applied himself to looking for Martian satellites. In fairness to his wife, it should be pointed out that she did a lot of the work, and only withdrew from the project when he refused to pay her a working wage for her efforts.'